FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 5, 2016
Southern New Hampshire 90, Bentley 87 | BOXSCORE
It wouldn't have been fitting had the 2015-16 Southern New Hampshire men's basketball team's final game of the Northeast-10 Championship not included a heart-pumping ending. Another road game and another down-to-the-wire win for the Penmen.
Redshirt-sophomore Chris Walters scored a team-high 19 points as Southern New Hampshire outlasted Bentley University, 90-87, in the Northeast-10 Championship title game on Saturday afternoon at an electric Dana Center.
The Penmen, seeded fourth in the Northeast Division, capture their second Northeast-10 crown after winning their first in another road victory at Franklin Pierce back in 2013.
SNHU earns the league's automatic qualifier and will now await its seeding for the NCAA East Regional, which will be announced on Sunday night's (10:30 p.m.) NCAA Tournament Selection Show. Bentley, the Northeast's top seed, loses for just the third time in 16 games at home this season and will also be watching Sunday to learn its fate.
Walters shot 5-for-7 from the field, including 2-for-4 from beyond the arc, and was 7-for-8 from the line to go along with five rebounds and three assists. Senior BJ Cardarelli produced a big game, scoring 17 points (7-10 FG, 3-4 3-FG), including 11 in the first half, and snatching six rebounds, while classmate Rodney Sanders, despite playing just 23 minutes due to foul trouble, registered 15 points (5-13 FG, 2-5 3-FG, 3-4 FT), seven rebounds and three assists.
Freshman Daquaise Andrews turned in a big performance in Sanders' absence as he posted 13 points (3-10 FG, 7-8 FT), nine boards and four helpers.
Keegan Hyland paced Bentley with 21 points, including 13 in the opening stanza, while Tyler McFarland netted 17 points and Alex Furness added 15.
With Bentley leading 64-63 at the 13-minute mark of the second half, a 12-4 run from the Penmen, which included seven points from Andrews, put SNHU on top, 75-68, midway through the frame. An Andrews tip-in with 12:59 to play put Southern New Hampshire up one and Bentley would never lead again.
The Falcons would respond, however, with a 7-0 counter-run that featured four points from McFarland and knotted the game at 75-all with under eight minutes to play. With the game still tied nearly three minutes later, a huge trey from junior Devin Gilligan triggered a 5-0 spurt that put the Penmen up, 82-77, with 2:40 on the clock.
The teams then swapped 3-pointers, but another triple from McFarland pulled Bentley within 85-83 with 1:32 to go. Walters made a pair of free throws to make it a two-possession game, but a Furness layup cut it back to two with 24 seconds left. After Andrews made two more at the line, Furness again converted a bucket and the SNHU lead was down to a pair at 89-87 with four seconds remaining.
Sanders, who played just nine minutes in the second half, was fouled and sent to the line where he would make one of two to keep it a one-possession game with 3.9 seconds to play, but Bentley's desperation heave from over half court was off the mark and the Penmen escaped with yet another pulse-pounding victory.
Gilligan tallied eight points (2-5 FG, 2-4 3-FG, 2-4 FT), four rebounds and three assists in the win, while classmate junior Adrian Oliveira added eight points (4-7 FG), three rebounds and two helpers. Fellow junior Jerome Harris also chipped in eight points (3-5 FG, 2-4 3-FG).
Southern New Hampshire scored the first two points of the game, but 3-pointers from Furness and Hyland powered a 10-2 run that gave Bentley a six-point lead less than three minutes into the contest.
With the lead at five nearly seven minutes later, back-to-back 3-pointers from Harris and Gilligan sparked an 8-0 rush that was capped by a pair of Gilligan free throws, which put SNHU in front, 25-22, with 8:46 to play in the opening half.
The gap was still three when buckets from Oliveira and Sanders handed the Penmen their largest lead of the half at 39-32 with just over four minutes to go. Bentley, buoyed by five points from McFarland, closed the half on a 13-4 tear to send the game to the break, knotted at 45.
Bentley held a 51-50 lead nearly two minutes into the second stanza when 3-pointers from Walters and Cardarelli bookended an 8-2 run that opened a 58-53 advantage for the Penmen with 16:13 remaining. The lead was still five over a minute later when four different scorers combined for a 9-3 stretch that gave the Falcons what would be their final lead of the afternoon at 64-63 with 13:17 remaining.
2016 Northeast-10 Conference All-Championship Team
Keegan Hyland, Bentley
Tyler McFarland, Bentley
Rodney Sanders, Southern New Hampshire
Chris Walters, Southern New Hampshire
Ryan Logan, Stonehill
Most Valuable Player - Rodney Sanders, Southern New Hampshire
Reporting for this release provided by the athletic communications staff at Southern New Hampshire.
ABOUT THE NORTHEAST-10
The Northeast-10 Conference is an association of 15 NCAA Division II colleges and universities located in New England and New York that is committed to supporting balanced academic and athletic opportunities for more than 6,500 student-athletes.
Each year, 4,500 of those student-athletes compete in conference championships in 24 sports, making the NE-10 the largest DII conference in the country in terms of sport sponsorship. Leading the way in the classroom, on the field and within the community, the Northeast-10 is proud of its comprehensive program and the experience it provides student-athletes.
